:NASCAR on television in the 1970s
{{Short description|none}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{main|NASCAR on television and radio}}
One of the earliest telecasts of a NASCAR race was the 1960 Daytona 500, parts of which was presented as part of CBS Sports Spectacular, with announcer Bud Palmer.{{cite book| title=ESPN Ultimate NASCAR| publisher=ESPN Books| year=2007| isbn=978-1-933060-25-5| author=Ryan McGee| pages=[https://archive.org/details/espnultimatenasc00ryan/page/42 42–43]| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/espnultimatenasc00ryan/page/42}}
In the ensuing years, but before 1979, there were three main sources of NASCAR telecasts:{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}
- ABC's Wide World of Sports, the sports anthology program, provided coverage of select NASCAR Winston Cup races in the 1970s. In 1971, it presented a 200-lap race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in its entirety, the first such broadcast of a NASCAR race. Throughout the 1970s, ABC presented portions of the Daytona 500, Southern 500, and other important races.
- In the late 1970s, CBS Sports Spectacular aired some races; like Wide World of Sports, they were taped and edited.
- Car and Track, a weekly auto racing show hosted by Bud Lindemann, recapped all of NASCAR's top-series races in the 1960s and 1970s in a weekly 30-minute syndicated show.
CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and motor-sports editor Ken Squier believed that America would watch an entire stock car race live on television. On February 18, 1979, CBS presented the first flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500.{{cite web| url= http://www.nascar.com/2003/kyn/history/daytona/01/23/daytona_1979/ |title= 1979: Petty winds up in 'fist' place| date= January 23, 2003| access-date=February 14, 2011}} Richard Petty won NASCAR's crown-jewel race for the sixth time, but the big story was the post-race fight on the track's infield between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, who crashed together on the final lap while leading. The race drew incredible ratings, in part due to the compelling action both on and off the track, and in part because a major snowstorm on the East Coast kept millions of viewers indoors.{{Cite news|url = https://www.espn.com/racing/columns/story?seriesId=2&columnist=mcgee_ryan&id=3195732|title = Dramatic '79 Daytona 500 put NASCAR on the worldwide map|last = McGee|first = Ryan|date = January 14, 2008|work = ESPN Internet Ventures|access-date = December 15, 2015}}
List of races televised
=1970-1971=
From 1962 to 1978, the Daytona 500 was shown on ABC's Wide World of Sports.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} During the 1960s and early 1970s, the race was filmed and an edited highlight package aired the following weekend.
During the period on Wide World of Sports, the booth announcers typically served as roving pit reporters during the running of the race, as well as interviewing in victory lane. In the event of a three person team only the pit reporter would be reporting while commentary was separately recording. The booth commentary was recorded in post-production.
=[[1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|1972]]=
=[[1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|1973]]=
=[[1974 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|1974]]=
In 1974, ABC began the first semi-live coverage (joined-in-progress) of the Daytona 500. Coverage was normally timed to begin when the race was halfway over. Brief taped highlights of the start and early segments were shown, then ABC joined the race live already in progress, picking up approximately the last 90 minutes of the race. This format continued through 1978.
=[[1975 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|1975]]=
| class=wikitable |
| Date
!Event !Network !Reporters |
|---|
| 2/13
|Twin 125's (Daytona) |ABC | |
| 2/16
|ABC |
| 3/23
|Atlanta 500 (Atlanta) |ABC |
| 4/19
|Rebel 500 (Darlington) |ABC | | |
| 5/4
|Winston 500 (Talladega) |CBS | | |
| 5/25
|World 600 (Charlotte) |CBS | | |
| 7/4
|Firecracker 400 (Daytona) |ABC |
| 8/24
|Champion Spark Plug 400 (Michigan) |CBS | |
| 9/1
|Southern 500 (Darlington) |ABC | |
| 10/5
|National 500 (Charlotte) |ABC |
| 11/9
|Dixie 500 (Atlanta) |CBS | |
=[[1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Series|1976]]=
| class=wikitable |
| Date
!Event !Network !Reporters |
|---|
| 2/15
|Daytona 500{{YouTube|title=1976 Daytona 500|id=R8yy46yh8TA}} |ABC |
| 3/21
|ABC |
| 4/11
| Rebel 500 (Darlington) | ABC | | | |
| 5/2
|Winston 500 (Talladega) |CBS |
| 5/30
|World 600 (Charlotte) |CBS | | |
| 6/13
|CBS | |
| 7/4
|Firecracker 400 (Daytona) |ABC |
| 8/8
|CBS | |
| 8/22
|Champion Spark Plug 400 (Michigan) |CBS |
| 9/6
| Southern 500 (Darlington) | ABC | |
| 10/10
|National 500 (Charlotte) |ABC | |
| 11/7
|Dixie 500 (Atlanta) |CBS | | |
| 11/21
|Los Angeles Times 500 (Ontario) |ABC | |
The 1976 Daytona 500 was held on the same day of the final day of competition in the Winter Olympics (also broadcast on ABC). ABC carried 30 minutes of live coverage of the start of the race, then switched to the Olympics for 90 minutes to carry taped coverage of the final two competitive events (a cross-country ski race and the final runs in the bobsled), held earlier that day. Then it was back to Daytona for about an hour-and-a-half for the finish.
=1977-1979=
| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;" |
| rowspan=2 | Year
! rowspan=2 | Date ! rowspan=2 | Event ! rowspan=2 | Track ! rowspan=2 | Network ! rowspan=2 | Coverage ! colspan=2 | Commentary ! rowspan=2 | Pit Reporters |
|---|
| Lap-by-lap
! Color |
| rowspan=10 | 1977
| February 17 | Daytona | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|These races aired on February 19th.}} |
| February 20
| Daytona | ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| March 20
| Atlanta | ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| April 3
| ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| May 29
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on June 11th.}} |
| July 4
| Daytona | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 16th.}} | |
| August 7
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on August 13th.}} | |
| September 5
| ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on December 16th.}} | |
| October 8
| ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on December 17th.}} | |
| November 20
| Ontario | CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on November 26th.}} |
| rowspan=11 | 1978
| February 16 | Daytona | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|These races aired on February 18th.}} |
| February 19
| Daytona | ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| March 19
| Atlanta | ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| April 8
| ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| May 28
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on June 24th.}} |
| June 18
| Michigan | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 1st.}} |
| July 4
| Daytona | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 22nd.}} | |
| August 6
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on August 19th.}} | |
| September 4
| ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on December 16th.}} | |
| October 8
| ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on December 30th.}} |
| November 19
| Ontario | CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on November 25th.}} |
| rowspan=14 | 1979
| February 11 | Daytona | CBS | Live |
| February 15
| Daytona | CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|These races aired on February 17th.}} |
| February 18
| Daytona | CBS | Live |
| March 18
| Atlanta | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on March 24th.}} |
| April 3
| ABC | {{Tooltip|Live|Only the last half of the race was shown live, joined in progress.}} |
| April 22
| MRN TV | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 22nd.}} | |
| April 29
| MRN TV | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 29th.}} | |
| May 27
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on June 16th.}} |
| June 17
| Michigan | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on June 23rd.}} |
| July 4
| Daytona | ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on July 7th.}} |
| August 5
| CBS | {{Tooltip|Live|Joined live midway through the race.}} |
| September 3
| ABC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on September 22nd.}} | |
| October 7
| NBC | {{tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on October 21st.}} | |
| November 18
| Ontario | CBS | {{Tooltip|Highlights|This race aired on December 1st.}} |
In 1979, CBS instituted the live "flag-to-flag" coverage policy.{{cite web|url=http://www.nascar.com/2003/kyn/history/daytona/01/23/daytona_1979/ |title=1979: Petty winds up in 'fist' place |access-date=2007-06-09 |author=Mark Aumann |date=January 23, 2003 |publisher=Turner Sports Interactive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525061914/http://www.nascar.com/2003/kyn/history/daytona/01/23/daytona_1979/ |archive-date=May 25, 2011 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E4IED2 |title=1979 Daytona 500 |website=Amazon |date=27 January 2004 |access-date=2007-06-09 }} The ground-breaking 1979 broadcast ushered in the 22-year run of NASCAR on CBS.
During its entire run from 1979 to 2000, CBS also carried the Busch Clash (live), and in most years, carried the Twin 125s (tape-delayed).
See also
- NASCAR on television in the 1960s
- NASCAR on television in the 1980s
- NASCAR on television in the 1990s
- NASCAR on television in the 2000s
- NASCAR on television in the 2010s
- List of Daytona 500 broadcasters
- List of Wide World of Sports (American TV series) announcers
- List of events broadcast on Wide World of Sports (American TV series)
References
{{reflist}}
{{NASCAR on CBS}}
{{NASCAR on NBC}}
{{NASCAR on television and radio}}
{{NASCAR on ESPN}}
{{ABC's Wide World of Sports}}
Category:Wide World of Sports (American TV program)
Category:CBS Sports Spectacular